Manufactured articles often include complementary inner and outer panels that are adhesively bonded at peripheral surfaces. For example, automotive vehicle body structures such as doors, hoods, decklids, and tailgates, and electronic structures such as circuit boards, often include a first substrate adhesively bonded to a second substrate. When the substrates are both formed from metal, the first substrate may be welded to the second substrate. However, when at least one of the substrates is formed from a polymeric material, such as a fiber-reinforced polymeric material, the two substrates may be adhesively bonded by heating and curing an adhesive that is sandwiched between the two substrates. Such heating and subsequent cooling of the adhesively bonded substrates may cause surface deformation or distortion of the substrates, i.e., bond-line read out, at the location of the adhesive due to differing rates of thermal expansion between the substrates and the adhesive.